Written by Monica Fan, edited by Cindy Teh. This article is a part of a special series by fundMyLife content marketing interns from QLC.io.

Putting the Fun in fundMyLife

Often, the best lessons in life are learned through games. In sports you learn to work hard, cultivate resilience, and build grit. In video games, you learn things like strategizing, working in a team, and hand-eye coordination, etc. But how about financial literacy and skills? We here at fundMyLife are all about having fun in life, and what better way to incorporate fun and personal finances than to use games to go about it! In this article, we look at some of the board games out there that you can enjoy with your family while learning about managing personal finances at the same time. Start ‘em young, we say!

1. Happy Pigs

The one who’s truly happy here is the farmer

Level: Easy
Number of players: 2-5
Time to play: 30-50 mins
Age: 10+

Happy Pigs is a fun and silly game for the entire family! The main aim of this game is to raise the pigs in farms and keep them alive by feeding and vaccinating them, with the objective of selling them off at a good price. The games have 16 rounds: with 4 in each season – Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter. It is not difficult to play, once you understand the importance of optimizing the Costs and Returns within a limited timeframe. The richest player wins! Happy Pigs is a strategy game that is perfect for kids, and teaches them to overcome the challenges of working with limited resources and terms.

2. Monopoly

Not shown: hours of chaos as every player fights to be the last one standing

For kids, the most recommended game is the classic board game MONOPOLY. This game puts you in the shoes of a real estate tycoon – in this game you are buying and selling, or investing in properties. Parents, through this game your kids will encounter basic ideas in economics, e.g., cash flow, assets, debt, stock market, and bankruptcy. The ultimate goal of this game is to be the last player left with cash in hand. While some luck is involved, it is still an educational game for the whole family.

3. Cashflow For Kids

No one should be left behind when it comes to financial education, especially kids!

Level: Intermediate
Number of players: 2-6
Time to play: 60 mins
Age: 6+

Cashflow For Kids, developed by Robert Kiyosaki, author of “Rich Dad Poor Dad”, is an interesting game which gives young players some ideas of how accounting works in the real world. The aim of the game is to encourage players to think about different streams of passive incomes, such as mutual bonds and stocks, instead of focusing on the limited and stabilized salary income.

That’s a lot of sheet, but better prepare your kids for such sheet in the future!

One astonishing characteristic of the game is the accounting sheet given to assist players. It is for recording income earned and expenses incurred to help kids better visualise financial scenarios, and for assessing the performance of their investments.

While the accounting sheets given are different from actual financial statements, it is designed to give your kids ideas about passive income, unexpected expenses, unsystematic risks, and the importance of cash in real life. This is a sophisticated game with many volatile variables and it is not easy to play, but the depth of financial knowledge gained would be extremely useful for your kids. As the creator said, children will learn most by playing this game regularly. Anyone can train to have a higher financial IQ! Even your 6 year old!

That’s All Folks!

Having adequate financial knowledge is no longer a “good-to-have”, but a “must-have” in today’s world and economic climate! Besides cultivating good habits, you have to teach your kids to take care of their money, and they will take care of you in your old age with their money.

Why else do we have kids for? OH, you mean the joys of parenthood?

fundMyLife is a platform that aims to empower the average Singaporean to make financial decisions confidently. We also connect consumers to the right financial planners in a private and anonymous manner, based on their financial planning questions. Follow us on our Facebook page to get exciting updates and your dose of finance knowledge! Let us know what you want to know about finances or something that you wish your friends knew.

The Urge to Splurge is Real

Do you lament purchases on tons of things you don’t need? Do you resolve not to do it again, only to repeat the same the following month? You might have a spending problem. As the first step, acknowledging that you have a problem is the first step. And as any problems go, they are solvable as well.

Make a list

Rather than walking around aimlessly and buying every single thing you see, a physical list forces you to focus on your intended purchases. Furthermore, the list will help you plan your purchases, especially when you have access to the cost of those things. This way, you can budget your money and be entirely conscious about the cost of things that you intend to buy. Discipline is key to reduce the urge to shop compulsively.

Bring your friends and family

Having someone who can you keep in check will be immensely useful. This person could be anyone, but most important it’s someone who doesn’t enable reckless purchases. Tell your friend or family to be strict with you and to stop you from purchases that you don’t need. Two heads are better than one, it’s much better to have someone to intervene if you’re going out of line.

Identify the triggers

Impulsive or reckless spending is usually a symptom of a larger problem. One of the most common reasons for that urge to splurge is boredom, which can be addressed by picking up a hobby. Another reason is stress, which results in the popular term “retail therapy”. Emotional shopping is anything but therapeutic – at best it is a bad habit and at worst it is an addiction. It also leads to accumulation of unneeded purchases, clogging up your house. Alleviate stress via other means like exercising. The upside is that you keep yourself healthy as well.

Remove temptations

On top of avoiding the triggers, it is important to remove physical temptations. For example. having a credit card is useful but it is also an enabler when you are out there shopping. As such, leaving your credit card at home and bringing out only cash forces you to focus on the purchases at hand and nothing else. At home, remove all credit card details from your online shopping sites from your computer. Uninstall all of your favorite shopping apps on your phone. This will ensure that you won’t carelessly browse for products on apps, e.g., Carousell, Lazada, etc when you’re bored and end up purchasing something. Unsubscribe from mailing lists as well – take control and avoid sales emails.

Wait it out

Making the conscious effort to sit on them helps. For large ticket purchases, it is all the more important to get feedback from your friends and family. That way, you can take the time to weigh out the pros and cons of the things that you were thinking of buying. Most of the time, you will realise that the bag you were eyeing wasn’t as pretty as you thought it was. Or perhaps, that vacuum cleaner that you thought was useful wasn’t as suitable for your home after all.

That’s all folks!

Know anyone who spends recklessly and has immense urge to splurge? Reach out to them – you will be doing them a huge favor. It’s too late if they fall into a large debt that they can never recover from. Forwarding and sharing is caring 😉 Let us know what you’d like read about on our Facebook page!

fundMyLife is a platform that aims to empower the average Singaporean to make financial decisions confidently. We also connect consumers to the right financial planners in a private and anonymous manner, based on their financial planning questions. Follow us on our Facebook page to get exciting updates and your dose of finance knowledge! Let us know what you want to know about finances or something that you wish your friends knew!